In my capacity as a Systems Administrator I have also been blessed with the duty of supporting our telephone systems. For the most part this is the easiest aspect of my job. We have an old PBX system that typically runs quite well and really all that has to be done is swap a phone now and then or change a name. The problems arise when people begin thinking that I, the SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR can fix anything. This afternoon I was paged while assisting a person with a computer issue. A number of minutes pass while I finish explaining the complicated concept of copy and paste and another page follows for, the SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR!I return to my office and call the operator to see what the emergency is. As she begins to laugh I know that it cannot be good for me. She tells me that I need to call so and so, that she is having a problem with her phone. I ask her if she could fill me in before I begin the painful task of assisting this known ignoramus with their problem. The user in question was given a phone number for an individual that she was supposed to call. When she dialed the number a man answered, this of course was odd since there should not be a male voice answering. She assumes that she dialed the prefix of the number incorrectly because we have two local prefixes that are similar to each other. She attempts to dial again but uses the different prefix and the man answers once more. She asks the individual on the other end if this was 555-1234 and he replies no, it is 554-1234. Now the user "knows" that she dialed the number correctly the second time and that her phone must be dialing something different. When she told the internal operator of the issue, the operator had the good sense to try both numbers and did not reach the man for both. Now the operator knows that the user has just misdialed, but it is insisted that they page me, the SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR!
I sit there listening to this story and begin pondering what in the hell am I supposed to do? If I tell the user that she just dialed incorrectly she will be offended and declare that she is not stupid and that she did not dial the numbers incorrectly. Should I swap her phone knowing that phones connected to a PBX do not actually dial but transfer its tones to the main system and it dials and therefore swapping phones would make no difference? I decided to tell the operator that she should contact the user and explain to them that all of the 555 and 554 prefixes are being redirected to sex lines and that she should not call them again. Sorry, I just cannot fix stupid.
